Ham Radio: A Hacker's Paradise

Bill Meara explains how ham radio is a perfect fit for the tinkerer or hacker in anyone.

Most likely you already know the term "ham radio." If you don't, let me take a moment to educate you. Ham radio is the act of using a specific section of the radio wave spectrum for recreational use. No commercial entities are allowed. Something about the fact that it is completely "free" really gets people's juices flowing. Every operator takes great pride in their equipment -- equipment that is, more often than not, cobbled together from pieces found in the trash and repaired.

One of the most wildly interesting aspects of ham is that you can communicate with people halfway across the planet. As Bill Meara points out in his guest post at Hackaday.com, people have literally bounced their messages off the Moon in order to reach their target. Bill goes on to talk about how the community is always so eager to pull new people in and educate them, something that any community could learn from. The pride Bill says he has in his rig is easily heard any time you communicate with a "hammer." We know some of you out there are already avid hammers, so if you have just a few moments, you should really go read what Bill has to say.

You are right Caleb, I've met many an enthusaistic ham who was willing to help me get started, but I've still not done it! If you're looking for more on hams, the amazing Doug Grant writes a column called Ham's Eye View, his last one was about Wayne Green, a famous ham who died this year at the age of 91.

But the ARRL can point you at local ham groups, and make it easier to find them.

I was at a party two weekends ago at the home of a ham enthusiast. It was fun to watch people who knew each other by call sign and posts on ham related message boards meet in person for the first time. "Oh! You're w1xyz! I've DXed with you and see your posts on the boards!" In a couple of cases, I believe the people had already met socially, but were just now finding out they were both hams and knew each other through another channel.

(The party was not ham related, but the host was a ham and hams he knew were part of his invitation list. The party was mostly an excuse for him to fire up the grill and the smoker and make meat for the multitudes.)

Those curious about the topic should hop over to http://www.arrl.org/ , the web site of the American Radio Relay League. It's the master organization for ham operators, and the starting point for any investigation.